Fullers of Chiswick has recently purchased Gales of Horndean and, although no announcment has been made about the future of the brewery, there are mounting fears that it will be closed shortly since Fullers could absorb the capacity at Chiswick.
CAMRA, The Campaign for Real Ale is campaigning to keep Gales Brewery
open. Please support our
campaign by signing our online petition.
Save Gales now!
New Licensing Act
The Act to completely reorganize licensing in England & Wales has been passed by Parliament and has received the Royal signature. This act replaces a number of separate acts which regulated pubs, clubs, music in public places and gaming machines.
This act will allow pubs to open to suit the trade available - not as some opponents have tried to claim, to force pubs to open for long hours or even 24 hours a day! In fact it is unlikley that many pubs will open longer than at present, except perhaps in town or city centres, where many pubs may try to cream off custom from the late night clubs.
The police have been broadly in favour of ending the system where pubs all close at the same time, often causing public nuisance problems and are liklely to bring pressure on pubs to stagger their closing times to make life easier for everyone.
Hoever, the main aim of the Act is to shake up licensing and separate the licensing of the pub from the licensing of the manager. Licensing is to be handied over to local councils, with separate licences for the building and the manager, leaving magistrates with the job of arbitrating in the case of an appeal. The manager's licence will become portable - when a manager moves on to another pub, there would be no need for them to obtain a new licence. Similarly, the building licence will remain in force until there are changes at the pub. A new or amended licence would need to be sort from the council if changes are made to the building or to the opening hours.
CAMRA has reservations about local council licensing of pubs, but feels that with the right safeguards, this is an improvement on the present system, cutting through much red tape.
The act will not fully come into force until January 2005, although there will be a "changeover" period, starting this summer. It remains to be seen whether the new act will be any better than the previous ones which it replaces - only time will tell! Watch this space!
A pint should be a
pint!
The minister at the
DTI, Patricia Hewitt has bowed to pressure from the brewing and pub-owning
industry and stated that she intends to introduce legislation to enshrine the
practice of short-measure in law. Henceforth, a pint must contain a minimum
of 19 fluid ounces but the legislation does not say that it must contain
any more than this.
She says this will
ensure that drinkers get what they pay for - rubbish we say, we are paying for
a full pint and that's what we expect!
We have written to
Patricia asking when we can expect legislation to be introduced to ensure that
a kilogram of potatoes need contain only 950 grams or a litre of petrol need
contain only 950ccs of liquid. So far the only response is that these are
entirely a different matter - we can't see this, can you?
But what can
I do you may well say?
Although the date
for public consultation on the proposals has now passed, you can still
make your voice heard - MPs will be asked to vote on the proposals in the next
session of parliament.
We urge you to
write to your local MP at House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA (see our
Links Page for your local MP) and to
Patricia Hewitt at the DTI at the House of Commons or at the DTI, 1
Victoria Street London SW1H 0ET.
There is still time
to persuade her that the proposed bill will make a mockery of weights and
measures legislation and serve only big business interests.
Black Horse Demolished!
The Black Horse in Addiscombe at the corner of Black Horse Lane and Lower Addiscombe Road
had been a much improved pub in recent years with normally a couple of real ales from the larger independent brewers on a rotating basis but, following the a second successful planning application to Croydon Council to demolish this old pub and build a three-storey block of flats, it has now been demolsihed.
The new, approved plan made by Whitgift Homes makes only minor concessions to the scheme which was rejected by the Council, mainly to include space on the ground floor facing Lower Addiscombe Road for Bar/Restaurant usage (A3 usage for those who know the planning jargon).
No attempt has been made to address the major objections - that the proposals do not fit into the prominent space at the end of Addiscombe High Street and are 3/4 storeys rather than the 2 storey shops (and the 2 storey residential properties behind the site in Black Horse Lane).
What's
happening to the Lesley Arms?
The Lesley Arms on the corner of Cherry Orchard Road and Lower Addiscombe Road,
Croydon has been closed and boarded up for nearly 3 years and is deteriorating rapidly.
The Lesley Arms was originally built by Croydon Brewers' Nalder & Colyer to be their show-piece pub (their brewery tap in Surrey Street, Croydon being unsuitable for this treatment).
It was finally listed a couple of years ago although only the outside is protected, the interior having been destroyed many years ago.
Some work was done a few months ago, presumably to prevent complete collapse.
Listed building consent has now been granted by Croydon Council to turn the building into flats and/or some sort of hostel.
